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Lifelong learning is the "ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated"^[1] pursuit of learning for either personal or professional reasons.

Lifelong learning is important for an individual's competitiveness and employability, but also enhances social inclusion, active citizenship, and personal development.^[2]

Professions typically recognize the importance of developing practitioners becoming lifelong learners. Many licensed professions mandate that their members continue learning to maintain a license.^[3]

Lifelong learning institutes are educational organisations specifically for lifelong learning purposes. Informal lifelong learning communities also exist around the world.

History

In some contexts, the term "lifelong learning" evolved from the term "life-long learners", created by Leslie Watkins and used by Clint Taylor, professor at CSULA and Superintendent for the Temple City Unified School District, in the district's mission statement in 1993, the term recognizes that learning is not confined to childhood or the classroom but takes place throughout life and in a range of situations.^{[citation needed]}

In other contexts, the term "lifelong learning" evolved organically. The first lifelong learning institute began at The New School for Social Research (now The New School) in 1962 as an experiment in "learning in retirement". Later, after similar groups formed across the United States, many chose the name "lifelong learning institute" to be inclusive of nonretired persons in the same age range.^[4]

Traditional colleges and universities are beginning to recognize the value of lifelong learning outside of the credit and degree attainment model. Lifelong learners, including persons with academic or professional credentials, tend to find higher-paying occupations, leaving monetary, cultural, and entrepreneurial impressions on communities, according to educator Cassandra B. Whyte.^[5]^[6]

Libraries in the United States

In the United States, librarians have understood lifelong learning as an essential service of libraries since the early part of the 20th century. In 1924, William S. Learned, wrote of the potential of the American public library as an agency for adult education in The American Public Library and the Diffusion of Knowledge.^[7] Two decades later, in 1942, the American Library Association Adult Education Board established a new responsibility to the adult reader.^[8]

The Adult Education Act of 1966 linked literacy education and adult basic education programs.^[9] This occurred at the same time that the Library Services and Construction Act was being passed.^[10] Twenty-five years after the U.S. Adult Education Act was passed, the U.S. Office of Education published Partners for Lifelong Learning, Public Libraries and Adult Education.^[11]

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) was established in 1996 and incorporated responsibilities from the U.S. Office of Education's library programs, including those focused on lifelong learning. "Championing Lifelong Learning" through libraries and museums is the first goal listed in the organization's strategic plan for 2022-2026.^[12]

Definition

Lifelong learning has been defined as "all learning activity undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competences within a personal, civic, social and/or employment-related perspective".^[13] It is often considered learning that occurs after the formal education years of childhood and into adulthood. It is sought out naturally through life experiences as the learner seeks to gain knowledge for professional or personal reasons. These natural experiences can come about on purpose or accidentally.^[14]

Lifelong learning has been described as a process that includes people learning in different contexts.^[15] These environments do not only include schools but also homes, workplaces, and locations where people pursue leisure activities. However, while the learning process can be applied to learners of all ages, there is a focus on adults who are returning to organized learning.^[15] There are programs based on its framework that address the different needs of learners, such as United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 4 and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, which caters to the needs of the disadvantaged and marginalized learners.^[16]

Lifelong learning is distinguished from the concept of continuing education in the sense that it has a broader scope. Unlike the latter, which is oriented towards adult education developed for the needs of schools and industries, this type of learning is concerned with the development of human potential in individuals generally.^[17]

Pedagogy

Lifelong learning focuses on holistic education and it has two dimensions, namely, lifelong and broad options for learning. These indicate learning that integrates traditional education proposals and modern learning opportunities.^[18] It also entails an emphasis on encouraging people to learn how to learn and to select content, process, and methodologies that pursue autodidacticism.^[18] Some authors highlight that lifelong learning is founded on a different conceptualization of knowledge and its acquisition. It is explained not only as the possession of discrete pieces of information or factual knowledge but also as a generalized scheme of making sense of new events, including the use of tactics in order to effectively deal with them.^[19]

Reflective learning and critical thinking can help a learner to become more self-reliant through learning how to learn, thus making them better able to direct, manage, and control their own learning process.^[20] Sipe studied experimentally "open" teachers and found that they valued self-directed learning, collaboration, reflection, and challenge; risk taking in their learning was seen as an opportunity, not a threat. Dunlap and Grabinger say that for higher education students to be lifelong learners, they must develop a capacity for self-direction, metacognition awareness, and a disposition toward learning.^[3]

The Delors Report^[21] proposed an integrated vision of education based on two key paradigms: lifelong learning and the four pillars of learning. It argued that formal education tends to emphasize the acquisition of knowledge to the detriment of other types of learning essential to sustaining human development, stressing the need to think of learning over the lifespan, and to address how everyone can develop relevant skills, knowledge and attitudes for work, citizenship and personal fulfillment.^[22] The four pillars of learning are:

Learning to know
Learning to do
Learning to be
Learning to live together

The four pillars of learning were envisaged against the backdrop of the notion of 'lifelong learning', itself an adaptation of the concept of 'lifelong education' as initially conceptualized in the 1972 Faure publication Learning to Be.^[22]^[23]

Educational technology

The emergence of internet technologies has great potential to support lifelong learning endeavors, allowing for informal day-to-day learning.^[24]^[25]

Application

In India and elsewhere, the "University of the Third Age" (U3A) is an almost spontaneous movement comprising autonomous learning groups accessing the expertise of their own members in the pursuit of knowledge and shared experience.

In Sweden, the concept of study circles, an idea launched almost a century ago, still represents a large portion of the adult education provision. The concept has since spread, and for instance, is a common practice in Finland as well.

Formal administrative units devoted to lifelong learning exist in a number of universities. For example, the 'Academy of Lifelong Learning' is an administrative unit at the University of Delaware.^[26] Another example is the Jagiellonian University Extension (Wszechnica Uniwersytetu Jagiellonskiego), which is one of the most comprehensive Polish centers for lifelong learning (open learning, organizational learning, community learning).^[27]

In recent years, 'lifelong learning' has been adopted in the UK as an umbrella term for post-compulsory education that falls outside of the UK higher education system—further education, community education, work-based learning and similar voluntary, public sector and commercial settings.

In Canada, the federal government's Lifelong Learning Plan^[28] allows Canadian residents to withdraw funds from their Registered Retirement Savings Plan to help pay for lifelong learning, but the funds can only be used for formal learning programs at designated educational institutions.

Priorities for lifelong and lifewide learning have different priorities in different countries, some placing more emphasis on economic development and some on social development. For example, the policies of China, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Malaysia promote lifelong learning in a human resource development perspective. The governments of these countries have done much to foster training and development whilst encouraging entrepreneurship.^[29]

Aging

In a 2012 New York Times article, Arthur Toga, a professor of neurology and director of the laboratory of neuroimaging at the University of California, Los Angeles, stated that "Exercising the brain may preserve it, forestalling mental decline."^[30] Some research has shown that people with higher cognitive reserves, attained through lifelong learning, were better able to avoid the cognitive decline that often accompanies age-related neurodegenerative diseases.^[31] Even when subjects had dementia, some studies show that they were able to persist in a normal mental state for a longer period than subjects who were not involved in some type of lifelong learning.^[32]

Studies so far have lacked large, randomized controlled trials.^[33] In "Education and Alzheimer's Disease: A Review of Recent International Epidemiological Studies" published in 1997 in the journal Aging and Mental Health, C.J. Gilleard, finds fault with other studies linking education to cognitive decline. Among other factors, he suggests that variations in lifestyles could be responsible for an increase in vascular dementia, as blue-collar type workers may be less inclined to work in industries that provide mentally challenging situations.^[34]

References

^ Department of Education and Science (2000). Learning for Life: Paper on Adult Education. Dublin: Stationery Office.
^ Commission of the European Communities: Adult learning: It is never too late to learn. COM(2006) 614 final. Brussels, 23.10.2006
^ ^a ^b Merriam, S. B. & Caffarella, R.S. (2007) Learning in adulthood: A comprehensive guide. San Francisco: Josseey-Bass (3rd. Edition)
^ Formosa, Marvin (May 1, 2019). "Universities of the Third Age". Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer Nature Switzerland. pp. 1–6. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_412-1. ISBN 978-3-319-69892-2.
^ Whyte, Cassandra B/ (2002). "Great Expectations for Higher Education". Speech at Higher Education Round Table Event. Oxford, England.
^ Whyte, Cassandra B. (1989) "Student Affairs-The Future". Journal of College Student Personnel. 30.(1) 86-89.
^ Learned, William S. The American Public Library and the Diffusion of Knowledge. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1924.
^ Lyman, Helen. Adult Education Activities in Public Libraries (Chicago: American Library Association, 1954).
^ Adult Education Act, Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Amendments, Pub. L. 89-750, 80 Stat. 1191-1222. (1966)
^ Monroe, Margaret E. "The Evolution of Literacy Programs in the Context of Library Adult Education," Library Trends 35 (Fall 1986).
^ Monroe, Margaret Ellen and Kathleen M. Heim. (1991). Educational Resources Information Center (U.S.) Microform, ERIC: ED 341 393. U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Educational Resources Information Center.
^ U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services. "Championing Lifelong Learning" FY 2022-2026 Strategic Plan
^ Commission of the European Communities. (2001, November 21). Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality
^ "Higher Education at the Crossroads of Disruption: the University of the 21st Century, Andreas Kaplan, Emerald Publishing House, London". Retrieved 2021-04-24.
^ ^a ^b O'Grady, Anne (2013). Lifelong Learning in the UK: An introductory guide for Education Studies. Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-34095-6.
^ Jarvis, Peter (2009). The Routledge International Handbook of Lifelong Learning. Oxon: Routledge. p. 310. ISBN 978-1-135-20253-8.
^ Keith, Davies, W.; Norman, Longworth (2013). Lifelong Learning. Oxon: Routledge. p. 21. ISBN 978-0749419721.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ ^a ^b Qinhua, Zheng; Dongming, Ma; Zhiying, Nian; Hao, Xie (2016). Adult Competencies for Lifelong Learning. Aalborg: River Publishers. p. 19. ISBN 978-87-93379-23-7.
^ Sharma, Tara Chand (2004). Meaning Of Lifelong Learning. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons. p. 56. ISBN 81-7625-484-3.
^ Mackeracher, D. (2004). Making Sense of Adult Learning, Second Edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
^ UNESCO. 1996. Learning: The Treasure Within. Report of the International Commission on Education for the 21st Century. Paris, UNESCO.
^ ^a ^b Keevy, James; Chakroun, Borhene (2015). Level-setting and recognition of learning outcomes: The use of level descriptors in the twenty-first century (PDF). Paris, UNESCO. pp. 27–28. ISBN 978-92-3-100138-3.
^ Tawil, S. and Cougoureux, M. 2013. Revisiting learning: the treasure within. Assessing the influence of the 1996 Delors report. Education Research and Foresight Occasional Paper no. 4, January. Paris, UNESCO.
^ Eynon, Rebecca; Malmberg, Lars‐Erik (March 2021). "Lifelong learning and the Internet: Who benefits most from learning online?". British Journal of Educational Technology. 52 (2): 569–583. doi:10.1111/bjet.13041. ISSN 0007-1013.
^ Dunlap, J. C., & Lowenthal, P. R. (in press). Learning, unlearning, and relearning: Using Web 2.0 technologies to support the development of lifelong learning skills. In G. D. Magoulas (Ed.), E-infrastructures and technologies for lifelong learning: Next generation environments. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
^ "Academy of Lifelong Learning". University of Delaware. 2006. Retrieved 2006-05-06.
^ "Wszechnica Uniwersytetu Jagiellonskiego". The Jagiellonian University. 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-15.
^ Agency, Canada Revenue. "Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP) - Canada.ca". www.cra-arc.gc.ca. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
^ Marope, P.T.M.; Chakroun, B.; Holmes, K.P. (2015). Unleashing the Potential: Transforming Technical and Vocational Education and Training. UNESCO. pp. 119–120. ISBN 978-92-3-100091-1.
^ Grady, Denise (2012-03-07). "Exercising an Aging Brain". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
^ Strom, Robert D.; Strom, Paris S. (2016-01-02). "Grandparent education and intergenerational assessment of learning". Educational Gerontology. 42 (1): 25–36. doi:10.1080/03601277.2015.1059148. ISSN 0360-1277. S2CID 146680601.
^ Bennett, David A.; Arnold, Steven E.; Valenzuela, Michael J.; Brayne, Carol; Schneider, Julie A. (2014-01-01). "Cognitive and social lifestyle: links with neuropathology and cognition in late life". Acta Neuropathologica. 127 (1): 137–150. doi:10.1007/s00401-013-1226-2. ISSN 1432-0533. PMC 4054865. PMID 24356982.
^ Hussenoeder, Felix S.; Riedel-Heller, Steffi G. (2018-12-01). "Primary prevention of dementia: from modifiable risk factors to a public brain health agenda?". Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 53 (12): 1289–1301. doi:10.1007/s00127-018-1598-7. ISSN 1433-9285. PMID 30255384. S2CID 52821084.
^ Gilleard, C. J. (February 1997). "Education and Alzheimer's disease: A review of recent international epidemiological studies". Aging & Mental Health. 1 (1): 33–46. doi:10.1080/13607869757362. ISSN 1360-7863.

Sources

Grady, D., (2012, March 7). Exercising an aging brain. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/business/retirementspecial/retirees-are-using-education-to-exercise-an-aging-brain.html .
US Department of Health and Human Services. (2007) Growing older in America: the health and retirement study. Retrieved from http://hrsonline.isr.umich.edu/sitedocs/databook-2006/inc/pdf/HRS-Growing-Older-in-America.pdf
Yilmaz, K. (2008). Constructivism: Its theoretical underpinnings, variations, and implications for classroom instruction. Educational HORIZONS, Spring.
This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (license statement/permission). Text taken from Level-setting and recognition of learning outcomes: The use of level descriptors in the twenty-first century, 27–28, Keevey, James; Chakroun, Borhene. UNESCO.
This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (license statement/permission). Text taken from Partnering for prosperity: education for green and inclusive growth; Global education monitoring report, 2016; summary, 11–12. UNESCO.

v t e Learning
Non-associative learning	Habituation Sensitization
Associative learning	Classical conditioning Imprinting Observational learning Operant conditioning
Insight learning	Abductive reasoning Deductive reasoning Inductive reasoning